Hoop-skirts



nrr

FFIC

A. SMART, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y.

CLASP FOR HOOP-SKIRTS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 21,373, dated August 31, 1858.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, A. SMART, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Metallic Clasp for Securing the Hoops to the Tapes of Skeleton Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specilication, in which- Figure 1 is a plane view of a clasp before it is bent to apply it to the skirt. Fig. 2 is a perspective View of the same, partly bent. Fig. 3 is an outside view of the same, showing its application. Fig. 4: is an inside view of the same. Fig. 5 is a central section of the same. Fig. 6 is an end view of the same. Fig. 7 is a top view of the same.

Similar letters of reference denote like parts in all the gures.

This clasp consists in a piece of metal plate A, the greater portion of which is of a width about equal to that of the skirt hoops, but it is made wider at the ends as shown in Fig. 1, to form on each side two lips a, a, by which it can be clamped to the hoop. In this plate there are cut (without the removal of any of the metal) slits b, b, which are parallel with the top and bottom edges of the plate, and the metal c, between the slits is pressed far enough out of th-e plane of the general surface of the other portion of the plate to form a loop which permits a tape to be passed between it and the portions of the plate on each side of it in a direction parallel with the general surface of the plate, as is illustrated in Figs. 3, 5, and 7.

To apply the clasp, the tape 'B `is passed through the loop c, of the plate, and the opposite side of the plate to that from which the loop c, projects is laid against either the inner or outer side of the hoop, the lips a, a,

are then turned over the hoop C, as shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, and closed tightly upon it either by a blow from a hammer, by a pair of nippers, or other suitable instrument, and the piece c, is pressed toward the surrounding port-ion of the plate so as to cause the tape to be secured firmly be tween the edges of each of the slits b, b. The clasp is thus secured to the hoop by the lips a, a, and to the tape by the loop c, and hence the hoop is firmly attached to the tape.

This clasp possesses the advantage over other clasps employed for the same purpose, in its not requiring either the tape or the hoops to be exactly of a4 certain width to make it fully operative. Any tape that will pass through the piece c, may be used, and the hoops may be wider or even a trifle narrower than the part of the plate between the lips a, a. It admits of a wider tape than other clasps of the same length, as the loop c, that receives the lip may extend nearly the whole length and considerably` beyond the inner edges of the lips a, a.

The term tape,7 as I have employed it in this specification, is intended to embrace all materials or fabrics that may be employed to suspend the hoops.

I do not claim to be the first inventor of hoop clasps, nor do I claim any part of the within-described clasp that is seen in the patent granted to T. Wallace, jr., on June 15th, 1858. But

I claim as an improved article of manufacture- M A hoop clasp constructed with a longitudinal loop (c) substantially as and for the purposes herein shown and described.

A. SMART.

Witnesses:

J. W. CooMBs, W. TUscH. 

